Klein Bottle House, Mornington Peninsula, Australia

Mathematically speaking...

This project delighted me for many reasons. it helps put australian architecture in the world wide frame for contemporay excellence. it embraces the freedom of expression. its simplicity to the eye brings about a playfulness. MORE please from the originator.
Jon www.perpetuallegacy.co.uk

The youthful team McBride Charles Ryan ought to be congratulated for pushing the boundaries, as it were, of Australian domestic architecture. All the same, I can't help thinking what the late RobinBoyd (Australia's pre-eminent architectural critic) would have said, is it 'featurism' or 'architecture' ?

mmm wonder what Jan van Berkel thinks, Klein bottle, Moebius-band house 1998? even so , well done! an amazing piece.

10/02/09
cheryl fosdick, duluth, MN

I reviewed this project with my mathematician father. His comments are interesting and inciteful:
"I think 'Klein Bottle' as a name does not correctly characterize the house, as far as I can see. Geometrically, a Klein bottle consists of a closed surface that has no inside and so something strange has to happen somewhere along the surface--like a confluence point or points. The designer should have done better to illustrate this point, perhaps by putting an insightful doorway somewhere. I don't know if this would be possible, but it is something to consider--and perhaps it was!".....
It would be interesting to know if the projects designer had, as the generator for the project, an actual or conceptual "confluence" of points and what the narrative, inclusive of Site and Program to accompany such a pursuit actually was. As a project that promotes Wonder and Inquiry about Process, I appreciate and commend its Adventurous nature.

Holiday home in Australia equates mathematics to architecure

The surfaces that mathematicians have developed hold intrigue for architects as they hold a
promise of new spatial relationships and configurations. Technology (CAD) has played an
important part in all this, it is now more possible to efficiently describe more complex shapes and
spaces and communicate these to the build. Previously the more orthogonal means of
communication – plans, sections and elevations naturally encourage buildings which are more
easily described in these terms, i.e. boxes. Klein Bottle House in Mornington Peninsula, Australia applies the logic of the Klein Bottle, a shape which folds into itself to become one continuous volume.

From the
outset the architects McBride Charles Ryan (MCR) wanted a building that nestled within the tree line. That talked about journey and the
playfulness of holiday time. What began as a spiral or shell like building developed into a more
complex spiral, the Klein bottle. MCR were keen to be topologically true to the Klein bottle but it
had to function as a home. We thought an origami version of the bottle would be achievable and
hold some ironic fascination.

The house revolves around a central courtyard, a grand regal stair connecting all the levels. There
is a sense of both being near and far to all occupants.

Its endless, curling shell-like quality particularly in the tee tree brings about a comforting
togetherness.